


Ghosts

by GooseEgg



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Radio, Reflection, fuck man i dunno, hinted ptsd anyway, it's rated t cause i used the fuck word
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-30 05:23:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12101676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GooseEgg/pseuds/GooseEgg
Summary: A single radio broadcast at the right time can startle you.





	Ghosts

Lorna hauled her pack, loaded with whatever of Elijah’s leftover goods looked most valuable, onto her shoulder. She stole a glance down at her right hand. It was still shaking, though not nearly as bad as it had been during her flight from the Sierra Madre. She clenched it tight, willing it to stop trembling. As she steadied herself to leave, she swore she could still hear the scurrying of the ghost people, still feel the bomb collar around her neck, still smell the acrid stench of the Cloud that hung over the villa. Slowly, she stepped forward, forcing herself to leave it all behind her, to let go.

 

“ _ Wait a moment.” _

 

She froze. Had someone followed her back? Had Christine? Or was it another of Elijah’s tricks, designed to lure her back and free him? She peered gently over her shoulder, her hand reaching for her pistol, ready to drop her bag and make for cover.

 

It was the fucking radio. The same radio that had lured her here in the first place.

 

“ _ Before you go, I… We… hope you enjoyed your stay. Farewells can be a time of sadness -- letting go, difficult. As a guest of the Sierra Madre, you know that truth more than anyone. _ ”

 

Lorna’s thoughts drifted to Christine and Dean and Dog and God. Christine had stayed behind, watching over the Sierra Madre. With Vera Keyes’ voice, Lorna hoped the ghost people would leave her alone.

 

After they confronted each other in the theater, Dean disappeared. He wasn’t at the fountain when Lorna made her way out. Wherever he disappeared to, whether it was west, east, or into the Cloud to die on his own terms, she hoped he found peace and left his obsession with the Sierra Madre behind. She hoped he let go.

 

Dog and God were dead now, consumed by whoever now sat in their place. It had vanished too. Maybe it and Dean had gone together, two lost souls in a new world.

 

_ “... beyond these walls, that is your chance to begin again. I hope that you will return in happier times. Until then, the Sierra Madre, and I, will hold you in our hearts.” _

 

Lorna looked to the passage leading up and out of the bunker. She wondered if, maybe, that voice on the radio was just a recording, or perhaps something more? The ghost of the long-dead Vera Keyes, freed at last from an eternity in the Sierra Madre, bidding a final farewell. 

She reached out a hand and clicked the radio off. With a gentle buzz of static, it died. She suspected it would not turn back on again.

 

Lorna took a deep breath and started up the passageway back to the Mojave. 

 

Finding the Sierra Madre wasn’t the hard part.

 

It was letting go.

**Author's Note:**

> Dead Money is the greatest and the final message of the Sierra Madre Broadcast is also the greatest.


End file.
